I can’t wait for the canal to freeze. I want to put on my skates, eat a beaver tail and enjoy Winterlude. It’s been part of my winter life in Ottawa for the past four decades.

Winterlude is, no doubt, the marquee event of Ottawa’s winter season. It’s probably still the signature event of Ottawa, regardless of season. The Rideau Canal, the beaver tails, the thousands of neighbours out there on the ice with you, skating, pulling a kid on a sled, sitting by a fire to warm up with hot chocolate, it’s the quintessential Ottawa experience.

And it’s the quintessential Ottawa experience because we are a winter city. We get snow. We get cold weather. We get ice. Embracing our identity as a winter city will transform what could be a cold, intimidating season into another adventure. It’s an opportunity to bring new life to Ottawa.

It’s an opportunity we are not fully realizing.

Winterlude isn’t the only thing we have going on in the winter months. As Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans notes, “Most community associations host winter carnivals where we all brave the elements, and engage in a multitude of activities from skating, hockey games, chilli cookoffs and sleigh rides.”

In Beacon Hill-Cyrville Ward, Coun. Tim Tierney hosted what one hopes will be the first of many annual Celebrate Winter event on Jan. 2. There was hockey, ringette, curling and fireworks.

And, of course, our city is dotted with skating rinks. From the newly built Sensplexes to city-maintained outdoor rinks, and community and backyard rinks, most of us have ready access to skating facilities.

And yet…

Being a winter city requires … more. More than getting out for a once-yearly skate on the canal or driving downtown one Saturday to watch a Red Bull Crashed Ice event. It requires an attitude shift. We must resolve to make winter hospitable and more inviting.

We need — wait for it — a Winter Manifesto.

In 2012, the City of Edmonton adopted just such a philosophy. Their WinterCity initiative put aside the grumbling about winter, opting for adventure and community, instead. Edmontonians are now “embracing the long nights, the winds, the snows and the cold as new companions instead of old enemies.”

They have researched the use of buildings and shelters to provide cover for the wind. They plant trees strategically. They are creative about the use of light to animate the city.

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And they promote a good mix of amenities in outdoor areas, noting, for instance, that having sledding hills beside coffee shops facilitates breaks to warm up, thus allowing extended outdoor excursions.

They have implemented “white of ways,” snow-packed urban transportation routes designed to let people ski and pull sleds to get around the city for their mundane errands and commuting.

Building a great winter city is just a twist on basic city-building best practices. It’s about providing public space and mix-use amenities. It’s about being multi-modal and walkable. It’s about engaging street design and protection from the elements.

As Rideau-Rockliffe Coun. Tobi Nussbaum puts it: “Elements that make a city a good winter city are congruent with good urban planning.”

This is the right attitude. It’s about more than standalone events. We need a connected network of winter infrastructure that gets people out and draws people through our city, whether by foot, bus, bike, snowshoe or ski.

Every time we clear a bike lane, groom a ski trail or build a rink, people use it. There is a nascent desire here for Ottawa to be a winter city.

This year, the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway is groomed for skiing. This is what we need throughout our city. Nussbaum is exploring the possibility of plowing or grooming the Rideau River Pathway, as well.

Cross country skiers take advantage of great weather as they make their way along the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway ski trail this month. Darren BrownDarren Brown /
Postmedia

Most importantly, we need to improve our bus service and sidewalks. When it snows, we need fewer private vehicles on the road and more people on buses (the number of collisions we see on the first snow day tells us that).

Despite our best intentions, sidewalks are often a mess of snow and ice. Crosswalks are blocked. Bus stops are inaccessible. People walk in the road.

“Sidewalks are getting harder and harder to keep clear,” said Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper expresses a similar concern. “People are coming to dread winter because it’s just more challenging to get around.”

We must re-dedicate our city to winter mobility.

A cyclist makes her way along the windswept Morningside Lane within the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa on Friday. Errol McGihonErrol McGihon /
Postmedia

In Stockholm, sidewalks are plowed first. This gets people out and engaging with the life of city streets. It also ensures that those who have mobility issues are not stuck inside.

Tierney sees mobility as an important issue for winter months. “Considering our aging population, it’s also important to keep seniors active during the winter months, and we need to find a way to ensure that they have the support necessary to get out of the house and involved.”

This is where our winter identity must come from, first and foremost, our ability and propensity to get around and do things in the city. If we give people infrastructure, the accessibility and the belief that winter is just another way to enjoy Ottawa, people will.

This should be our Winter Manifesto.

Jonathan McLeod is an Ottawa writer and and winter lover.

What our councillors think

Coun. Diane Deans: “To really get the most out of Ottawa we all need to embrace winter. It has a tendency to last a long time. … There is no denying that the Rideau Canal is the centrepiece of our international claim to fame as a winter city. This Unesco Heritage site comes alive in the winter and, for me personally, is a great source of pride.

Nothing gives me more pleasure than observing the thousands of skaters on the canal embracing winter, bonding with friends, getting some exercise and enjoying that most delicious of winter treats, the beaver tail.”

Coun. Jeff Leiper: “I think we’re in for a re-think about what winter means and our perception of ourselves as a winter city. Climate change is both challenging our assumptions about the kind of activities that will be available to us in the winter, and our mobility.

“Sidewalks are getting harder and harder to keep clear. People are coming to dread winter because it’s just more challenging to get around. Our outdoor activities are becoming less and less certain as rain and warm temperatures damage trails and snow sculptures and the local ice.

“I think we’ll see our stereotypical winter activities focused in a much tighter timeframe around a few weeks when it’s coldest and most stable. But our desire to actually go outside is going to wane unless we’re able to preserve mobility around the city – particularly simply walking or using transit.

We need engineering and design solutions to some of these problems. Keeping sidewalks free with salters and plows is becoming less tenable in light of climate change. To the degree that we can implement technological solutions, we can stave off a trend toward hibernation.”

Mayor Jim Watson: “In Ottawa we joke that there are two seasons — winter and construction. We can either hibernate and grumble about winter or we can embrace it. Most of us have chosen to fully embrace it, and we take pride in the many activities we partake in. The City of Ottawa is a great city to enjoy winter in, as it offers an array of fun and inclusive recreation options to residents and visitors. These include public skating rinks, recreation programs and special events.

As part of the Canada 150 celebrations, Ottawa will host many winter sports championships such as the National Skating Championships from Jan. 16 to 22 and the Red Bull Crashed Ice Cross Downhill World Championships on March 3 to 4. Residents and visitors can also enjoy numerous winter activities, festivals and events, such as skating on the Rideau Canal, the world’s largest naturally frozen ice skating rink, and Winterlude, the nation’s capital’s annual winter festival.

Although the snow accumulation in Ottawa often transforms the city in a winter wonderland, it can also present transportation and snow removal challenges. Despite occasional record setting snow falls, the City of Ottawa does an incredible job at maintaining our roads and sidewalks, well above provincial norms.”

Coun. Tim Tierney: “Ottawa is a City that spends a number of months of the year covered in a blanket of snow, and that’s why we try to offer as many activities as possible to keep residents engaged.

“Ottawa does do Winterlude, offers free public skating along the Rideau Canal and on the Rink of Dreams. You can warm up to a hot chocolate and a Beaver Tail in the Byward Market, or snowshoe along the new trail on the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.

“We do a tremendous amount of summer festivals, but encouraging winter festivities is of great benefit, as we found out on Jan. 2nd, when we hosted the first annual Celebrate Winter at the Richcraft Sensplex to great success. Hundreds of people came out to try their hand at curling, ringette and hockey and to see a fireworks display.

“We need to do more to ensure there are enough activities during the long winter months to keep our residents engaged. This year Red Bull Crashed Ice is coming to the capital, and it will be back every three years as the fan base grows in Ottawa.

“Considering our aging population, it’s also important to keep seniors active during the winter months and we need to find a way to ensure that they have the support necessary to get out of the house and involved.”

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